Friends, Flowers, and Family
by poxelda
Summary: Mac needs all his friends to help him over an emotional hump. Rated T for tears. If you aren't even a little sniffy after this one, I have failed in my job as writer.


Of course, it was Jack who noticed something was wrong with MacGyver first. They had just finished a bruising mission—literally and figuratively. They were on the plane home. Riley was snoring softly on the chair behind Jack. Mac was tossing and turning on the bunk across from him. Finally, he stood up and went to the back of the plane. Jack had been in a restless sleep himself when Mac's movement woke him up. Jack looked at his watch and frowned they'd only been in the air four hours, there were another six to go. Jack sat up and wiped his face with both hands moving his neck side to side to loosen up the muscles. He stood up and followed his partner's path.

"Hey bud, can't sleep?" Jack said plopping into the seat beside his younger partner. Mac looked over at him and for a second there was such a heavy sadness in his eyes, Jack thought he was about to cry. Mac smiled and it was gone so fast Jack was wondering if he had seen it at all.

"Just feeling antsy." Jack watched as he took out a paperclip and began to bend it without looking at it. Jack nodded then yawned. He was about to think he'd imagined the whole thing when he saw what Mac was doing. He wasn't shaping the paperclip, he was annihilating it. He was furiously bending it until a piece broke off then he let that piece fall to the floor attacking it. Jack sat back and looked at Mac with a raised eyebrow. Mac followed Jack's eye. He threw away the last piece.

"Stupid habit." He muttered. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. Jack knew this game.

"What's going on, bud?" He asked. Mac answered without opening his eyes.

"I'm tired."

"No, seriously, look— "Jack began. Mac turned and glared at Jack. Jack was surprised with the heat in the glare.

"I just need to be alone." Mac said. Jack met his gaze.

"I notice you didn't say you needed to sleep." He challenged. Jack expected an eye roll or a "shut up Jack." He was not ready for the flame of anger that sent Mac to his feet and stalking back to the front of the plane. Jack tried to grab his hand, but Mac evaded his grip. Jack watched him plop back to the spot he'd left. Mac turned his back stiffly away from the aisle and pulled the blanket over his head. Jack shook his head. Jack yawned and followed suit. They had all been on a short fuse the past few days.

Jack's worry didn't ease though. As they began the decent to LAX, Jack woke up bleary eyed. He glanced over at his partner. Mac sat on his bunk his knees to his chest annihilating another paperclip. Glancing at the floor Jack noticed a growing pile of broken paperclip bits at Mac's feet.

"Did you get any sleep?" He asked Mac. Mac didn't answer. Jack sat up. He glanced over at a sleepy Riley who was just waking up with a loud stretch and yawn. Jack turned back to Mac who was chuckling. He looked at Jack and indicated Riley,

"Sleeping Beauty." He muttered. Jack chuckled too. Riley's hair was hanging in all directions.

"Don't think Sleeping Beauty looked like that when she woke up." Jack teased glad to see Mac's mood lift. He was rewarded by a pillow in the face.

"Sleeping Beauty didn't have to stay up all night hacking a server while neo-Nazis tried to blow her up. All she ever had to do was sing with stupid birds and be a maid for dwarves!"

"I think that was Snow White." Mac said. Riley sent a pillow into his face and almost growling stalked to the back of the plane to the rest room. Mac looked at Jack with a smile. The teasing back and forth continued all the way back to the Foundation. It wasn't until they were pulling up the long glass building that Jack noticed Mac had stopped contributing quite a few miles ago. He sat and stared out the backseat window. Jack frowned.

"Hey, Mac. You ok?" Mac didn't face him as he answered.

"Of course." He said. Jack waited but he offered nothing else. Jack shared a glance with Riley. Both were surprised by the bitterness in his tone. Before Jack could say anything, Mac had his bag and was out the door before they even stopped moving. He was in the building before Riley and Jack even got out of the car.

"What did you do?" Riley demanded. Jack looked at her surprised.

"Me? I didn't do anything." Jack said. He frowned as he got his gear from the sedan's trunk. Was Mac pissed at him? Jack re-ran the last two weeks and could find nothing he did wrong. Mac was fine the whole time, bantering, saving their lives, the usual. Jack shrugged. If he did, he'd work it out with the kid. Jack and Riley entered to see a very, very angry Matty waiting for them, arms crossed. She blasted Jack with a nasty glare that backed him up.

"What did you do?" He said. Jack blinked beginning to feel like he was in some twilight zone dream. He glanced around for Mac but he wasn't in the room.

"Where's Mac?" Jack asked.

"You tell me? He stormed in here slammed this on the desk," Mattie held up the flash drive they had gone to Lietzgard to get. "Then stormed out without a word."

"Why do you think it's something I did?" Jack replied. He felt his own anger begin to build and felt himself standing up straighter and moving into Mattie's space. If he thought his height gave him any intimidation power he was wrong. Mattie's glare held no back up in it.

"Something's been weird since we landed." Riley said looking between the two nervously. Mattie held Jack's gaze another minute longer then nodded and turned away. She looked at Riley.

"Any idea what?" Riley shook her head.

"He was fine all mission until we landed." Mattie shot Jack a look. He scowled back at her daring to say that he would ever do anything to hurt Mac. Mattie nodded and turned away.

"There's no mission up yet, why doesn't you all take some R and R." She said. Riley grinned and punched Jack's shoulder.

"No excuse now, old man!" Jack rolled his eyes. Riley looked at Mattie and explained. "Jack had always promised to take my Mom and me fishing— "

"You like fishing?" Mattie said. Riley shrugged.

"I don't think she will, but that's not the point." Jack said.

"Well, have fun." Mattie turned toward the door.

"Mattie, what are you doing?" Riley asked.

"I'm spending the weekend with my God daughter."

"Have fun." Jack offered meeting her eye. Mattie smiled to let him know they were fine. Her face turned serious. Jack nodded as if answering a question. Mattie nodded back and left. Jack's smile faded. She knew he would dig out whatever was bothering his partner and do his damndest to fix it.

Bozer was humming along to his headphones while he cleaned his lab up for the weekend. He felt great. He was going home for Mother's Day and for the first time in forever his whole family will be there. He could taste the honeysuckled ham with pineapples and cherries…and the cobbler…a tap on his shoulder sent him four foot vertical. He spun holding up his cleaning bottle in defense. His headphones were snatched off and Bozer relaxed when he saw it was Jack and Riley.

"Give a brother a warning next time, bajeezus!" Bozer panted.

"We tried." Riley said. Jack handed him back his headphones, a serious look on his face. Bozer straightened up.

"Where's Mac, is everything ok?"

"We were hoping you could tell us. Have you seen him?" Bozer frowned at them.

"No, what's going on, Jack?" Jack shook his head and looked at Bozer his face heavy with worry.

"I don't know." Jack sighed.

Mac's jeep was still parked in the parking garage when they got there. Glancing in, Jack could see it hadn't been disturbed. He nodded at Bozer and Riley.

"Let's take my car." They were pulling up to Mac and Bozer's house in record time. There was no sign of Mac. They did find his bags thrown on his bed, and looking under it Jack saw his running shoes were gone. Bozer made coffee as they sat around the counter.

"So, he was fine for the mission?" Bozer started. Jack and Riley nodded.

"How was he before?"

"Fine…" Bozer's eyes widened.

"What?" Jack said straightening.

"He was enthusiastic."  
"What?"

"He was enthusiastic." Bozer looked at Riley. "You know how he is before a mission, serious and a bit worried."

"Yeah, focused." Riley nodded. Jack thought back and slapped his hand against the wood causing the other two to jump. Jack didn't notice as he ran his hand through his hair and pacing.

"You're right. He was excited about going." Riley said glancing at Jack. Jack took a deep breath and headed for the door. He paused to put on his yellow-lensed shades.

"I'll go get him. We're going to figure this out." He nodded and headed to his car. It took him a couple of tries before he saw his partner running along the road on a very steep trail. Jack glanced at his watch. It'd taken him about half an hour to find him. Doing a quick calculation, he figured Mac had been running over an hour. Judging by how sweaty his sweats and t where they had all been uphill. Mac's face was red. Instead of a gazelle he was running like an elephant, his feet digging in and kicking up dirt. Mac was an experienced runner. He knew to pace himself. Running like this it was amazing he'd gone this far, there was no way he was going to make it back. The fact that Mac hadn't planned on his return trip worried Jack more than anything else that entire day. Jack pulled over a few feet in front of Mac's path. Mac didn't seem to notice him until he almost ran into him. Mac drew back awkwardly, as if all his limbs didn't get the memo to stop at the same time. He bent over his sides heaving to get air. A puddle of sweat pooled on the packed dirt of the path. He looked up at Jack forcing him to stand up.

"What are you doing here?" He gasped. Jack crossed his arms.

"Trying to keep you from giving yourself a stroke from the look of it." Mac smiled and stretched.

"Just working out a few kinks. Had some energy to work off." Mac leaned back and stretched his arms behind him. Jack took off his shades and got closer. Mac backed up a step surprised. "What's wrong? Are you ok? Bozer?" Jack stopped at the worry in Mac's voice. It was normal for Mac to worry about others first, even to the detriment of his own health, but his voice held a note of blind panic.

"Yeah, we're all fine except for one thing." Mac shuffled as he waited for Jack to go on. Jack frowned the kid looked like he was expecting to be told they all had terminal cancer. He reached out to put a hand on Mac's shoulder. He could feel trembling. "We are all worried about you." He said. Mac's body relaxed and he smiled shrugging out of Jack's grip. He turned to begin walking back the way they'd come.

"You don't have to, I'm fine." Jack stopped him by grabbing the back of his soggy t and pulling. Mac let out a squawk and found himself being turned and pushed against the car. He looked at Jack in genuine surprise.

"Fine? Have you been hydrating? Bring any food? By my calculation, you've almost run a marathon here. "

"It wasn't that far." Mac said almost laughing. Jack's worry turned into irritation. He shook Mac hard.

"What is up with you? Are you trying to kill yourself?" Mac looked at Jack and put a hand on the older man's shoulder. He eyed his partner seriously.

"Of course not, I just needed to run…" Jack suddenly found himself supporting a fainting MacGyver by his t shirt.

"Damnit!" He muttered lowering him to the ground. Jack pulled out his phone and called Bozer. He tapped Mac on the face. He looked up at Jack groggy.

"Wha…Whoa." Mac closed his eyes as he sat up. Jack shook his head. He put his hand on the kid's forehead. It was turning cool and clammy. Jack lifted him up, and dragged him into his car. He turned the air up to full blast and sat in the car with Mac. Mac put a hand to his forehead and took deep breaths.

"What is going on?" He said. Mac closed his eyes. Jack waited. He knew that he could always outwait MacGyver. Mac slowly looked over his eyes were distant.

"I'm an ass."

"No arguments here."

"Thanks Jack." Mac smiled. He sat up and looked out the window. "You don't need to worry, I'm fine."

"I would be a lot more convinced if you weren't trying to kill yourself." Jack jumped in surprise when Mac slammed a fist down on the dashboard. He reached over and went to get out. Mac was too out of it to realize that Jack had already locked the door. Then Mac lost it. He began to slam the door, kick the floor and punch the dashboard. It took a second for a shocked Jack to respond. "Hey, hey, HEY!" He reached over and tried to stop his partner from hurting himself. He could feel spasms in all of Mac's muscles. It took a few minutes before Mac calmed. When he felt, the fight go out of the kid he let go. Mac slumped in the seat. His face was empty. He looked at Jack.

"Sorry, I'll fix it." He said softly. His voice was hollow. Jack blinked at him. Mac was holding up the vent cover. Jack took it from him and tossed it in the back of the car.

"What is it, Mac? You're freaking me out." He asked gently. Mac met his gaze and turned away with a sad smile.

"We should get back. They're probably worried." Mac said softly turning to stare out the window. Jack hesitated. Should he push it? Mac's head slumped against the window. Jack shook his head and drove back to Mac's house. Mac didn't move the entire way. Jack shook his head. He'd seen Mac beaten, tortured, drugged, and everything in between, but this scared him more than any of those things. Mac's biggest enemy has always been Mac. Glancing over as he pulled up, Jack was worried that was the only enemy he couldn't save Mac from. Bozer and Riley came running to the car. Jack unlocked the door. Bozer opened the door and managed to catch Mac as he flopped out. Jack jogged around the car.

"Ri go run a hot bath and put lots of Epsom salts in it. His muscles are going to be spasming like hell. Bozer go get what I told you." They nodded. Jack got his partner to his feet. Mac let out a soft groan as his leg muscles began to twitch. He managed to keep them moving. Jack kicked the door closed and walked beside his groggy partner. "You know therefore people train for marathons you know." Mac grunted in reply. He listed to the side. Jack walked him to the bathroom and helped him into the steaming bath. Mac laid back eyes closed, trying to relax his overstressed muscles. Bozer came running in with two bottles of water and a bunch of bananas and high protein bars. Jack sat on the edge of the tub and peeled a banana. Mac opened his eyes and frowned. He was too tired to eat and he felt like his was being wrung out like a dishrag. He met the other's gazes and forced himself to sit up. He ate all that Jack gave him and dutifully drank the water. His muscles began to relax as the water cooled. He stared at his wrinkly white toes. Pruning up, his mother always said. Mac felt like an ax slammed into his heart.

He remembered the smell of the soap she would work into his hair. The gentle hands that used their fingernails just enough to make him feel relaxed and loved. He remembered the first day she took him to school, how she tried to hide her tears. How long she waved as he walked the stairs leading to a whole new world. He remembered the pancakes, blueberry with almonds and something else he never would figure out that made them fluffy heaven on a plate. He remembered she always came when his own mind melded darkness and shadow into looming monsters most nights. Mac hunched forward and picked at the corner of a toenail. He remembered when she started to not be home when he got home. He remembered the darkness that fell on the house. His mom and dad talked in loud whispered after he was in bed. He couldn't hear the words but he felt the fear. His mom began to look smaller, shrunken. Pruned. Mac didn't notice tears that flowed in double streams down his face. He didn't notice when Jack stepped in about to say something, paused then cat footed to the toilet and sat there silent.

Then came a day when his Dad made him wear a new suit. It was probably the most expensive thing he had ever owned. It was a shiny grey-blue. Mac put his head onto his knees. He could smell the lilacs and honeysuckle they passed on the way to the cemetery. He could feel the hot sun, hear the soft buzz of bees lazily hovering through the small group of people that sat staring at a hole in the ground. Mac could remember looking up at all the grown-up faces. No one would meet his confused looks, answer his questions. He was told to hush. His father held onto his hand even when it got sweaty and Mac tried to pull away. His family were not hand holders. Bored Mac looked around at other gravestones, they were all colors and shapes. Mac wanted to run among them, play. He kicked his feet. His eyes grew wide when a black car pulled up and five men that worked with his Mom crossed to it.

"Stay here." His dad ordered. Mac was glad to be free of his father's sweaty grip and watched with fascination as they moved to the car and lifted out a big shiny wooden box.

"Mac?" The voice jolted Mac from his memory. He sat up and winced as the muscles in his back protested. He looked down after meeting Jack's concerned look. He swiped at his face. The bath was now cold. Jack held out a towel without a word. Mac nodded his thanks and Jack got up and left. He found a clean set of clothes on the sink next to a bottle of Tylenol.

"You're an ass." He said to the apparition in the mirror. He had his mother's eyes and dimples. That was what she'd always told him. And her brain, his father would always add. Mac's eyes were red rimmed. He was tired. He took a long pull of water after swallowing the pills. He worked his jaw and widened his eyes to push away the tears. His mother died over twenty-years ago? Why was this bothering him now? He painfully pulled on clothes. At the door, he listened. He could hear quiet murmuring from the living room. He just didn't have it in him to deal with anyone right now. He crept to his bedroom flopped to bed and was asleep in seconds.

"What do you think it could be?" Riley said softly. Jack blew out a sigh.

"I don't know. I know I promised to stay with you and your mother this weekend, Ri, but— "

"It's Mother's Day! Oh hell, how I could forget!" Bozer said standing up a look of horror on his face. He turned to the others and sat back down. "His mom died a week before Mother's Day."

"Oh man." Jack said it all clicking into place.

"Yeah, that's why we always…." Bozer's shoulders slumped.

"What?" Riley demanded.

"We always have a little party to remember her. It gets him over Mother's Day. I forgot this year, I was so excited to be going home."

"And we were all going away." Riley said. Jack stood up and ran a hand through his hair.

"He was going to be all alone." Bozer said softly kicking himself. "He has always been invited to our family's get together but it made him feel worse." They were silent a long minute before Jack turned around grinning.

"I have an idea…"

"Angus MacGyver! Are you going to sleep all the day away!" Mac jolted awake and blinked, trying to figure out what was going on. "Get dressed and get out here everyone's waiting on you." Mac sat up shaking his head. Was he still dreaming? He stood up and his sore muscles reminded him he was very much awake. Mama Bozer? What was she doing here? He crossed to the door and heard a buzz of conversation coming from the direction of the living room. He strolled out bleary eyed. He froze and his mouth dropped open when he reached the living room. Bustling around the kitchen was the entire Bozer clan laughing and cooking. A smile ghosted across his face as he remembered the many mornings he had woken up at their house part of the morning bustle. Mama Bozer came up and kissed him on the cheek and folded him into a warm hug.

"Aren't you going to say happy Mother's Day?" She asked. He smiled but couldn't push any words around his tight throat. She met his gaze before he could drop it. She folded into a hug that he leaned into. He felt tears fall. She patted his head. "I know, baby, I know." Mac sniffled and wiped his tears with his sleep. She gave his shoulder a squeeze then went to the kitchen yelling at Bozer to add more pineapple to the ham. Mac glanced over to see Riley and her Mom on the deck with Jack trying to figure out the apparatus on the grill.

"About time you woke up." Matty said from the couch. She was sitting beside her god daughter and her mother sat on the other side of her.

"What are you all doing here?" He asked softly. "You all had plans."

"Plans change." Jack said coming in, he smiled. "Family's don't. You know that." Mac looked at him blankly a minute then gave him a hug.

"Now, you better show me how this grill thing works because Mama Bozer's gonna expect steak real soon and I don't think she is a woman to be messed with." Mac smiled his first genuine smile in a long time.

"No, she is not."


End file.
